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Introduction

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The first book of rules for the game of tennis, entitled Sphairistikè, or Lawn Tennis, was published by Maj. Walter Clopton Wingfield in 1873. The retired British cavalryman enjoyed garden-party games as well as old-school sports, but at heart he was a salesman and a promoter. He soon patented a “new and improved portable court” for his outdoor game, which mixed elements of racquets, badminton, and court tennis. Then he began advertising lawn tennis sets with special balls and bats, shoes with India-rubber soles, and Sphairistikè tape measures (for the net). To make it an all-season game, he even suggested it could be played on ice skates.

Lawn tennis was sanctioned when championship matches were held at Wimbledon in 1877 on the grounds of a club that had been renamed the All-England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club. Familiarly called the Big W, it is still the shrine of lawn tennis and holds the only Grand Slam event still played on a grass surface.

Rhode Island was the cradle of American tennis: when the United States National Championships (now the United States Open) were inaugurated in 1881, they were played on the lawns of the Newport Casino. Like Wimbledon, the event became known by its location after it was moved to Forest Hills, N.Y., in 1915. That tournament was played on grass until 1975, when clay courts were installed to equalize Grand Slam competition. Clay was the surface of the French championships, and grass at that time was the surface of the fourth Grand Slam event, the Australian nationals. (Both the United States and the Australian legs of the Grand Slam are now played on hard, synthetic surfaces.)

While lawn tennis was devised as a more accessible version of the old court game played in French châteaus, the manicured grass courts it required were the playgrounds of the elite. Dirt courts (clay, long referred to as hard courts) brought another class of tennis players into competition.

The introduction of cement courts in public parks in the 1960s and ’70s finally dispelled the sport’s country-club image. Furthermore, by the 1980s the word lawn had been dropped from the names of all the associations that governed the game. (See alsoracket sports.)

Tennis can be played by two persons in singles or by four in doubles. The object of the game is to hit the ball over a net and keep it in play until the opponent loses the point by failing to make a good return. The playing area is divided into two service courts and a backcourt on each side of the net. The service area on the player’s right is called the deuce court; the one on the left, the ad (for advantage) court.

The game begins when the server stands behind the baseline, tosses the ball into the air, and attempts to drive it diagonally across the net into the receiver’s deuce court. The ball must land in the boxed area or on its lines. A miss is called a fault. When a server steps on or over the baseline before striking the ball, a foot fault is called. If a second serve fails to hit within the target area, the server has committed a double fault and loses the point.

After the first point, both players move to the left and continue play from the ad court. They alternate between the deuce and ad courts after each point until a game has been won. At the end of the first and all subsequent odd-numbered games they exchange ends of the court. This lessens any advantage one player may have because of wind, sun, or other factors.

To win a game, four points are needed, but a lead of two points is required. If each player has won three points, the game is tied at deuce. The player who scores the first point after deuce has advantage but must take the next point to win the game. If the ad point is lost, the score is once again deuce, and play continues indefinitely until one of the players wins the game by two points. When the second game begins, the player who served the first game becomes the receiver. The right to serve continues to alternate after each game for the remainder of the match.

Scores are counted 15 for the first point, 30 for the second, 40 for the third, and game. A zero score is called love—from the French l’oeuf, meaning egg (or goose egg). If the score is 30–love, for example, the server (whose score is always given first) has scored two points and the opponent none. A set is won by whoever wins six games with at least a two-game lead. It was not unusual in the past for players to be tied 6–6, 7–7, 8–8, and so on. Sometimes it took longer to get a two-game advantage to win the set than it usually takes to finish an entire match. Today, in major tournaments and the Davis Cup, men generally play best-of-five-set matches and women best-of-three. In most other tournaments, men now also play best-of-three sets; women occasionally play best-of-five for finals. In Olympic competition, all matches are best-of-three sets, except for the men’s finals, which are best-of-five.

To keep sets from going on indefinitely, the tiebreaker was introduced in 1970. When the score is six games all, the tie can be broken by one more game, in which the players alternate every two services. After experimentation with sudden-death tiebreakers, which were played with 9- or 13-point maximums (and without a 2-point margin), a lingering-death variation won approval. The first player to win 7 points—and lead at that time by 2 points—wins the tiebreaker game and with it the set by a score of 7–6.

The Court and Equipment

The court is a rectangle 78 feet (23.8 meters) long from opposite baselines. It is 27 feet (8.2 meters) wide for singles and 36 feet (11.0 meters) wide for doubles. Directly behind the net are the service courts. They extend 21 feet (6.4 meters) from the net to the service line and are each 13 1/2 feet (4.1 meters) wide when measured from the center of the court to the sidelines. The backcourt extends full width from the service line to the baseline.

The surface of the court may be grass, clay, or some kind of hard material—usually concrete, asphalt, synthetic turf, or wood. The court surface is an important element in tennis because balls bounce higher or lower, faster or slower, depending on the surface they strike. There is a tendency to slide on clay while harder surfaces are ideal for quick starts and stops. The great Swedish champion Bjorn Borg won five consecutive Wimbledon championships on grass and four consecutive French championships on clay, but he was never able to win the United States Open on synthetic turf. American Pete Sampras also excelled at Wimbledon, which favors serve-and-volley play, but although he won a record 14 Grand Slam men’s singles titles between 1993 and 2002, including seven Wimbledon titles, a French championship eluded him.

Rackets

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For many years tennis rackets were so similar that no official rules governed their size, shape, or composition. During the 1970s the traditional laminated wood frames were replaced by graphite, fiberglass, and other synthetic materials. Then the International Tennis Federation (ITF) tried to regulate the size and establish a uniform gauge for strings. Players who want more power and a larger sweet spot (power zone) now favor midsize rackets in the 90-square-inch (580-square-centimeter) range. For heavy hitters, oversize (or widebody) rackets are made with frames up to 120 square inches (774 square centimeters), but they limit touch and control. In 1979 the ITF limited racket length for professional play to 29 inches (73.7 centimeters). This maximum was applied to nonprofessional play in 2000. Maximum racket width is 12.5 inches (31.75 centimeters).

There are several ways to grip the racket, the most common being the handshake. The hand, in other words, grasps the bottom of the handle firmly with the thumb also wrapped around the base of the handle. A player may modify this basic grip by shifting the thumb or index finger so that one or both point more or less toward the head of the racket.

Balls

The officially approved colors for tennis balls are white and yellow. The balls measure about 2 1/2 inches (6.35 centimeters) in diameter and weigh about 2 ounces (56.7 grams). When dropped on concrete from a height of 100 inches (2.5 meters), they must bounce upward 53 to 58 inches (135 to 147 centimeters). The outer surface must be uniform.

Strokes

The Serve

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The serve is the most important stroke in tennis. A good player can serve the ball to any spot on the service court. A ball can also be made to bounce in different ways when it hits the ground. This is done by turning the racket in the hand and putting spin on the ball when it is struck by the racket. A perfect serve is called an ace. This happens when a serve is so well placed or is hit so hard that it is impossible for the receiver to return the ball.

A let is a serve that strikes the top of the net before landing in the proper service court. Because the normal flight of the ball has been interrupted, the receiver has virtually no chance to get to the ball. The serve, therefore, is replayed whether the let occurs on the first serve or, following a fault, on the second serve. Once a ball is in play, the game is never stopped simply because a ball has hit the top of the net and bounced erratically. If a serve strikes the top of the net and then lands outside the service court, or if it falls back into the server’s court, it is scored as a fault—not a let.

The server is considered to have a clear advantage over the receiver. If a player loses a game while serving, therefore, there is danger of losing the set because the opponent serves the next game and can quickly gain a 2–0 advantage. Any game won by the receiver is called a break.

In doubles all four players take turns serving. Doubles is different from singles because two opposing players are often stationed near the net when the ball is served. This results in many rapid-fire exchanges across the net. When a ball lands within easy reach of two partners who play well together, each knows almost instinctively which one will make the return. Cooperation between partners is often more important than individual talents. In mixed doubles there is one man and one woman on each team. A coin toss or some other impartial method is used to determine which player (or, in doubles, which team) serves first.

Ground Strokes

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There are numerous ways of hitting the ball after it has been put into play. Ground strokes, which are the most common, are smooth-flowing strokes—either forehand or backhand—that return the ball after it has struck the ground. Inexperienced players must learn how to position their bodies in order to pivot properly as the racket is brought forward from the backswing position and into contact with the ball. The follow-through is also an essential part of all properly executed strokes. Some players use both hands for forehand strokes, for backhand strokes, or for both. Although the use of both hands provides more power, and for some players more control, many find it unnatural or detrimental to their game. Well-placed ground strokes, no matter how they are made, can send an opponent running from one side of the court to the other. The player who attacks in this way often prefers to stay back near the baseline, then suddenly rush toward the net, hoping to return the ball before it strikes the ground. This stroke, called a volley, is especially effective if the volley is hit softly and the opponent is near the baseline.

When a ball is deliberately lofted into the air, it is called a lob. A lob is used offensively to force an opponent to race to the back of the court to retrieve the ball and hopefully make, at best, a weak return. It is used defensively when a player is out of position and needs time to recover. Precious moments can be gained by sending the ball high into the air on its way to the opponent’s court.

The overhead smash requires perfect timing, but when properly executed it is almost certain to produce a point, especially if the ball is driven toward one of the sidelines. The opportunity for a smash occurs when a player returns a high lob that typically falls into the court a short distance from the net. The opponent waits for the ball to descend, then smashes it with a powerful overhead motion before (or occasionally after) it hits the ground. Because a smash travels with such speed and causes the ball to bounce so high, the defensive player is virtually helpless.

Whenever a player returns a ball, it can be manipulated in any of several ways. For example, the ball can be made to bounce low and skip forward as it hits the ground if the racket is brought across the top of the ball as it is hit. The topspin on the ball causes it to drop as it moves through the air across the net.

Competition

The Davis Cup has long been the most celebrated trophy awarded to men’s teams in annual international competition. The teams that meet in the finals must qualify by defeating other teams in regional play-offs called ties. The Federation Cup is a comparable trophy, awarded in worldwide women’s team competition.

Professional tennis tournaments were first organized in 1926, but amateur play continued to dominate the world of tennis because only amateurs were allowed to play in the major events and for the Davis Cup. By the 1960s some of the best amateurs were taking money guarantees under the table (so-called “shamateurism”) and the more popular signed with sports promoters for barnstorming tours. The influential All-England Club began to support open tennis in order to guarantee top talent in the men’s draw. A new era began in 1968 when the ITF approved 12 open tournaments and for the first time professionals were allowed to play at Wimbledon.

Since that milestone tennis has become a truly international sport. Professional tennis has also become very lucrative for the top-ranked players, many of whom earn more than a million dollars a year in prize money. Their off-court earnings are even greater, with seven-figure contracts for endorsements.

Although tennis was among the sports contested at the first modern Olympic Games, held in Athens in 1896, it was removed from the Olympics after 1924. In response to popular demand, the International Olympic Committee included tennis as an exhibition sport during the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. The committee restored tennis to medal-sport status beginning with the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.

In 1990 the Association of Tennis Professionals took control of the men’s regular tour. At the same time it altered the ranking system and legalized appearance fees. The ITF retained authority over the Grand Slam and international cup events. Women’s pro tennis was united into a single tour (excluding the Grand Slam events) in 1971.

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